Infrastructure, Public-Private Partnership and Social Impact Assessment

What the official syllabus says

General Studies-III (Main Examination, Paper VI), (D) Economy of India and Gujarat:

• Infrastructure & Economic Development: Role of infrastructure in economic growth: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc. Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in infrastructure projects. Social Impact Assessment.

Topics in detail

Infrastructure and growth

• Economic and social infrastructure; infrastructure as a public good
• Links with growth: lower transport and logistics costs, market access, productivity, jobs
• National Infrastructure Pipeline; PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan (2021); National Logistics Policy (2022)
• Financing: budget capital expenditure, National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development, infrastructure investment trusts, National Monetisation Pipeline

Energy and power

• Generation mix, transmission and distribution; losses of distribution companies
• Electricity Act, 2003; UDAY and the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme
• Gujarat: separate agricultural feeders under Jyotigram Yojana (2003), daytime power for farmers (Kisan Suryoday Yojana), a statewide gas grid

Ports and shipping

• Major and non-major ports; Sagarmala programme; Maritime India Vision
• Gujarat's lead in port traffic: Deendayal (Kandla) as a major port; Mundra, Pipavav, Hazira, Dahej and other non-major ports under the Gujarat Maritime Board
• Shipbuilding and shipbreaking (Alang); coastal shipping and ro-ro ferries (Ghogha-Hazira)

Roads, railways and airports

• Roads: Bharatmala, national highways, rural roads (PMGSY), expressways
• Railways: Dedicated Freight Corridors (the Western corridor runs through Gujarat), high-speed rail between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, station redevelopment
• Airports: UDAN regional connectivity, airport privatisation, cargo
• Urban transport: metro rail projects in Ahmedabad and Surat, bus rapid transit (Ahmedabad's Janmarg)

Telecom, digital, urban and water infrastructure

• Telecom and broadband: BharatNet, 5G, data centres; digital public infrastructure as a new form of infrastructure
• Urban infrastructure: water supply, sewerage, solid waste management, housing; AMRUT and Smart Cities
• Rural infrastructure: roads, electricity, drinking water (Jal Jeevan Mission), storage and markets
• Water infrastructure: dams, canals, pipelines; the Sardar Sarovar canal network and Gujarat's drinking water grid
• Logistics parks, warehousing and multimodal hubs

Public-Private Partnership (PPP)

• Meaning and rationale: private capital, efficiency, risk sharing
• Models: BOT (toll and annuity), BOOT, BOO, DBFOT, EPC, Hybrid Annuity Model, Toll-Operate-Transfer, management contracts
• Viability Gap Funding; Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee
• Kelkar Committee (2015) on revisiting the PPP model
• Problems: aggressive bidding, land acquisition delays, renegotiation, stressed assets, dispute resolution
• Gujarat Infrastructure Development Act, 1999 (an early State law on private participation) and the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board

Social Impact Assessment (SIA)

• Meaning: study of a project's effects on people, livelihoods, culture and services
• SIA under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013: public hearing, expert group review, consent requirements for PPP and private projects
• Steps: scoping, baseline, impact prediction, mitigation plan, monitoring
• Rehabilitation and resettlement; State amendments to the land acquisition law (including Gujarat's)
• Relationship with Environmental Impact Assessment

Overlaps

• Energy and Sustainability on this paper.
• Prelims General Studies: infrastructure in the Indian economy, including Social Impact Assessment.